Chinese real estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang has recently been reported to have deteriorating health conditions while serving his sentence. His daughter Ren Xinyi has posted an open letter on social media appealing to the Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping to allow Ren Zhiqiang to seek medical treatment abroad. The plea has garnered widespread attention and support online, with figures like Zhang Xin, the wife of SOHO China’s co-founder Pan Shiyi, indirectly expressing their support for Ren Zhiqiang to receive medical treatment outside prison.
On October 3, Wang Anna, a private entrepreneur in mainland China and the founder of Guang Media, posted on the social platform X that Ren Zhiqiang is in critical condition. Ren Xinyi bravely wrote to Xi Jinping, pleading for her father to seek treatment overseas.
In the post, Ren Zhiqiang’s daughter revealed that her father had been diagnosed with a serious prostate disease before his imprisonment and now urgently requires surgical treatment.
According to Wang Anna, “I have verified with my friends in China, and this letter was indeed sent by his daughter.”
Ren Xinyi’s plea on X platform has been widely shared and garnered attention. Zhang Xin, who currently resides in New York and is the co-founder of SOHO China, expressed concern over Ren Zhiqiang’s health, hinting at supporting his medical treatment outside the prison.
Zhang Xin’s overseas appeal has been seen as supporting Ren Zhiqiang’s release for medical treatment. Some comments suggest that the couple, Pan and Zhang, are returning the favor for Ren Zhiqiang’s prior support.
However, regarding Ren Zhiqiang’s potential release, most have a negative and pessimistic outlook.
Commentator Qin Peng stated in his self-media program “Qin Peng Observation” that he admires Ren Xinyi’s courage and her love for her father. But will Xi Jinping release him? It’s unlikely. The Communist Party of China does not adhere to laws or compassion. Otherwise, Ren Zhiqiang would not have been sentenced. Sentencing him to 18 years implies they have no intention of letting him out alive. This is an extremely cruel and inhumane approach.
Qin Peng continued to express doubts about the possibility of Ren Zhiqiang’s release by the Communist Party, attributing it to the Party’s inherently evil nature.
Public records show that Pan Shiyi, born in 1963 in Gansu Province, founded SOHO China Limited with his wife Zhang Xin in 1995.
Reportedly, Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin established the SOHO China Foundation, aiming to change the fate of students and families in impoverished areas through education. However, their donation of $15 million to Harvard University in the U.S. in 2014 sparked controversy and led to cyber attacks by the Chinese Communist Party.
Since 2014, Pan Shiyi has been gradually selling off his assets. In June 2021, Blackstone Group announced a $3 billion acquisition of SOHO China, seen as the Pan family’s move to cash out.
However, the deal was obstructed by the Chinese authorities. The Communist authorities initiated an antitrust review in August 2021 under the Anti-Monopoly Law, resulting in the termination of the transaction between SOHO China and Blackstone Group.
According to Chinese media reports, Pan Shiyi and Ren Zhiqiang were not only colleagues in the real estate industry but also close friends who often interacted on social media platforms.
At the age of 73, Ren Zhiqiang previously held positions such as Chairman of Huayuan Properties in Beijing, Chairman of Huayuan Group, Supervisor of Beijing Commercial Bank, Director of Xinhua Insurance, and Member of the CPPCC in Beijing. His father, Ren Quansheng, was formerly the Deputy Minister of Commerce of the Communist Party.
Ren Zhiqiang, known as “Ren the Cannon” in the industry, openly criticized the Beijing authorities multiple times, which was rare among the “Second-Generation Reds”.
In 2010, after the Communist authorities released the “Ten Regulations” to intervene in the property market, Ren Zhiqiang published a letter criticizing the government’s new policy on real estate.
In 2013, Ren Zhiqiang gave a speech at Peking University, calling on students to “unite to tear down this wall in front of us and re-establish a social democratic system.”
In February 2015, speaking at the “China Economic Forum 2015”, Ren Zhiqiang stated, “The government overly emphasizes guns and weapons, opposes Western values, and the winds of the Cultural Revolution are rising again.”
In September of the same year, Ren Zhiqiang reposted a post from the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, “We are successors of Communism,” and remarked, “The slogan ‘We are successors of Communism’ has deceived us for more than a decade.”
In 2016, after Xi Jinping inspected CCTV, which displayed “CCTV belongs to the Party, absolutely loyal”, Ren Zhiqiang questioned on Weibo, “When all media have a surname and do not represent the interests of the people, the people are abandoned to forgotten corners!”
In February 2020, a piece allegedly written by Ren Zhiqiang circulated online, criticizing the Chinese Communist Party for strengthening control over public opinion, exacerbating the spread of the epidemic. He referred to Xi Jinping as a “clown who stripped himself naked but insists on being the emperor”, showing no intention of concealing his ambition to be the emperor and “determined to destroy whoever stands in his way of being the emperor.”
In March 2020, Ren Zhiqiang went missing. Shortly after, he was investigated by the authorities and subsequently arrested. In September of the same year, Ren Zhiqiang was sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of corruption and bribery.